Send Your Roof Scope to Your Insurer Yourself, With a Dated Index

Once a roofer has handed you a written scope, the document that moves your claim forward is the packet you send to your insurer. Keys documents the damage, writes a scope with photos and measurements, and puts that package in your hands. What happens next is between you and your insurer. Missouri law bars a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating a homeowner's insurance claim under RSMo 407.725, so at this stage the roofer's job is to give you a complete record and then attend as the contractor while you deal with your own insurer.

Insurance claim

St. Louis roofs tend to have a long paper trail before anyone reaches the insurer. Hail and wind usually arrive in the same storm systems in spring and summer, and then the freeze and thaw cycle works through the winter on any shingle that was cracked, lifted or bruised. A packet that waits until the next hard freeze gives the insurer a second weather event to explain, and that is harder to sort out than one clean date of storm damage.

Why the homeowner sends it

An insurer keeps a file for each claim, and that file shows what came in, from whom, and on what day. A scope that reaches the insurer through the roofer's email may or may not sit in the file the way you expect. If you send the packet yourself, with a cover letter that names you as the policyholder, the record shows the homeowner made the submission. That is a plain fact, and it costs one email.

Sending it yourself also keeps the conversation where it belongs. If the insurer has questions about the roof, you are the person who answers them, and you can say what you know from your own photos and your own notes. The roofer can tell you what the scope means and what was done on the roof, but the claim itself stays with you.

What goes in the packet

Put the following in one folder before you send anything:

• The written scope, with each roof slope named and the shingle line the scope specifies.
• The photo set, with an index that gives each photo a number, a slope or location, and a one-line description.
• The roof diagram with measurements, in the same units the scope uses.
• A cover letter that gives your name, the property address, your claim number, the date of loss as you understand it, and a list of every attachment.

Keep the photo files at the resolution they were taken. A phone photo compressed to a small size for email can lose the detail that shows granule loss or a bruised mat. If the packet is too large for email, use a shared folder link or a file transfer service, and save the link with your records so you can show what was available and when.

How to date it

Date the cover letter the day you send it, and send it in a way that leaves a record of the send time. Email with the sent copy saved in your sent folder is one option. Certified mail with a return receipt is another, and it costs a few dollars at the post office. What you need to be able to show is what you sent and when. The date a roofer's file was created on the roofer's computer is not the date you submitted anything.

Save a complete copy of exactly what went out, including every attachment, in a folder named with the claim number. If the insurer later asks for a different format, such as its own form or measurements in another unit, ask for that request in writing, answer it in writing, and keep both messages together.

What it costs

The packet itself costs very little. Printing a few pages, a stamp or a certified-mail fee, and an hour of your time are the usual expenses. The larger cost is delay. A packet sent promptly after the scope arrives is easy to follow in the file, while one that sits in a drawer gives the weather more time to change the roof and gives you more to explain.

Whether the written scope itself carries a charge is a question to settle before the crew is booked, not after. Call Keys at (314) 220-2333 and ask what the scope, the photo set and the measurements cost as separate items. Get the answer in writing alongside the proposal, so you can compare it with any other quote you collect.

Keep a short list of what you spend on the claim process itself, including postage, printing, and any time you take off work to meet the adjuster. Those receipts are yours to keep, and they show the cost of the process separately from the cost of the roof.

What to ask

Put these questions to the roofer before you accept the scope as final:

1. Does each roof slope have its own photos, and does the photo index match the scope line by line?
2. Is the diagram drawn to the measurements the scope uses, and can you send me the diagram file in its original format?
3. Which shingle line does the scope specify? Keys installs Atlas and Malarkey shingles only, so ask which of those two lines is written into the scope and why that line was chosen for this roof.
4. Will you attend the adjuster's inspection as the contractor, and who on your crew will be on the roof that day?
5. If an adjuster asks a technical question about the work, will you put the answer in writing and copy me, so the answer goes into my file?

Each answer should go into your folder with the packet. A roofer who answers these questions plainly and in writing is giving you the documentation you need to keep the claim your own, which is the point of the packet in the first place.